DOUG COLLINS SAYS SIXERS' BIGGEST ISSUE IS IN LACK OF COMMUNICATION

At one point in the second quarter, when Kobe Bryant dribbled right past one defender, dribbled left past another and found Chris Duhon in the corner for an open 3-pointer, Doug Collins lost it.

The 76ers' coach had seen enough. Collins jumped from his seat on the bench Sunday and began shouting ... just in time for the Sixers to take a double-digit deficit into the locker rooms at halftime. Two quarters later, the Sixers had lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 111-98.

Collins thinks poor communication -- on offense and defense -- is the reason for the Sixers' three-game losing streak.

“Talking. Guys not talking," Collins said. "I talked to them this morning at shootaround. Until we want to embrace that and talk, we're going to be on roller skates. Whether it be speed, whether it be (getting to) the right spot, whether it be getting back, whatever. Until we start communicating on the floor together – we've got seven new guys. We've got to start to get to know one another. It's interesting – the Lakers were doing to us on the 3-point line what we had planned on doing, the running and jumping that we had worked on. But you've got to trust one another."

The Lakers (11-14) dominated the game at the 3-point line, where they knocked down 14 shots. In short, the Sixers (12-12) made the Lakers look like the Lakers, the team everybody had expected to outrun everybody else to an NBA title.

Evan Turner offered this as a solution to the Sixers' inability to speak to one another.

“We've got to get better at it – maybe communicating louder," Turner said.

In case you think the Sixers have been inept of late offensively from the 3-point line, they've been even worse defending from there. They've shot 33-for-122 (.270) from beyond the arc this month. Defensively, they've allowed teams to shoot 31-for-86 (.360) from there. (More on that Monday.)